An Open Letter to the West Contra Costa Community from Caliber Schools:
Every child deserves a great education in an inspiring facility.
Caliber: Beta Academy, a non-profit public charter school, and WCCUSD staff are proposing an agreement in which Caliber would acquire the vacant Adams Middle School site and pay all of the costs of restoring the campus into a safe, inspiring facility for our students and the community. WCCUSD has a legal obligation to provide Caliber with a facility that is “reasonably equivalent” to other District schools. Caliber expects to spend $15-20mm to renovate the Adams campus, relieving the District of its facility obligations to Caliber so WCCUSD can use its funds elsewhere.
We want all children to have a good education in a decent facility. Next year Caliber will have 800 students in portables on a small piece of asphalt behind Kennedy High School – with no space large enough to serve lunch, without a gym, without protection from the rain and on pavement that turns into a river. This isn’t a long term solution any of us would want for our children. We invite everyone to visit our school and meet with us.
Adams graduates: We want to bring this wonderful facility back to life so your children can go there.
East Richmond Heights residents: We want to make Adams a great resource for children and the community. We want to work with you to mitigate congestion, safety, construction and other issues – and we want the community garden to thrive. We will hold meetings and conduct surveys in parallel with the formal county planning process to ensure community needs and concerns are factored in to any decisions. We would like to set up a neighborhood committee to work with us during the planning and design.
Those whose children attend nearby schools: We do not want to take away from the work you are doing for your children. We want to collaborate, not compete. We want to create a joint working group of parents and teachers and students to find ways we can do more for all our children. Our school is fully enrolled with a waitlist in virtually every grade so we are not recruiting new students. And when we do recruit, it is from all over Richmond, not targeted at this neighborhood. We can thrive together.
Thank you for your interest in our project.
Jennifer Moses & Ron Beller Co-Founders Caliber Schools